RPJ News Team
Carleton’s weekend conference on the future of political journalism featured a range of panelists who’ve authored books in recent months and years — including bestsellers and national award winners — that were showcased on site by Ottawa-based Octopus Books.
Just two days before the Friday launch of Reimagining Political Journalism, conference panelist Niigaan Sinclair — author and Winnipeg Free Press city columnist — was named the 2024 winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction for his collection of a year’s worth of newspaper pieces and other writings titled Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre.
Sinclair, who also participated in a pre-conference online discussion in June that paved the way to this weekend’s in-person event at Carleton, described the book’s collected articles as a portrait of “the complexities of this place — in all of its good, bad, and in-between — and together suggest that what is found in this little prairie city says a lot about the future of the country it resides in.”
Mission accomplished, concluded the GG awards’ judges.
“A deep dive into the city of Winnipeg through the lives and worlds of its original inhabitants, Wînipêk is a necessary and important book: profound, difficult and expansive,” the GG’s peer assessment committee concluded in awarding Sinclair this year’s prize. “Niigaan Sinclair accomplishes the near impossible by creating a compelling and nuanced whole out of a series of newspaper columns. Wînipêk unearths histories of colonial violence, grounded in the wisdom and experiences of those who survived and survive it.”
Sinclair’s new book was just one of about a dozen publications on sale at the conference books table featuring authors who have also engaged in the weekend’s conversations about the present and future of political journalism:
David Moscrop is a freelance writer, author, and podcaster covering Canadian and US politics. His work has appeared in major news outlets in Canada and around the world, including the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, and the Guardian. His first book Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones was released in 2018. He also runs a popular Substack cleverly titled David Moscrop. He lives in Ottawa. Too Dumb for Democracy explores why we make disastrous political decisions and whether our stone-age brains are equipped for democracy in the era of social media and relentless news.
Desmond Cole is a journalist, activist and author based in Toronto. His work focuses on struggles against state violence, particularly local policing. He has produced works for live news radio, podcasts, magazines, and newspapers in Toronto and across Canada. Desmond’s 2020 book, “The Skin We’re In, A Year of Black Resistance and Power,” is a national bestseller. In June of 2024, Desmond received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Ontario Tech University for his work combating anti-Black racism. The Skin We’re In punctures the naïve assumptions of Canadians who believe we live in a post-racial nation and reveals in stark detail the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.
Candis Callison is the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous journalism, media, and public discourse and an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, jointly appointed in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. She is the author of How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts (Duke U Press, 2014) and the co-author of Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities (Oxford U Press, 2020). Candis is currently working on a long term research project about the role of journalism and media in Arctic and northern regions. She is a member of the Tāłtān Nation and a regular contributor to the podcast, Media Indigena. Callison’s book Reckoning explores journalism’s longstanding representational harms, arguing that despite thoughtful explorations of the role of publics in journalism, the profession hasn’t adequately addressed matters of gender, race and settler colonialism.
Pam Palmater is an award-winning Mikmaw lawyer, Indigenous rights advocate, educator and public speaker from Eel River Bar First Nation. She works through various mediums including podcasts and documentary films. She holds four university degrees, including a doctorate in law focusing on Indigenous rights from Dalhousie University. She was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Movers and Shakers and Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers. She currently serves as professor and chair of Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University. Palmater’s book Warrior Life explores how unlawful pipelines are being built on Indigenous territories, how the RCMP are making illegal arrests of land defenders on unceded lands and how anti-Indigenous racism permeates the internet. Palmater wades through media misinformation and government propaganda to get at the heart of key issues lost in the noise.
Duncan McCue is an associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication and has also been an award-winning CBC broadcaster and leading advocate for fostering the connection between journalism and Indigenous communities, McCue is working with Carleton colleagues to launch a new journalism skills certificate on the ground in Indigenous communities. McCue was with CBC News for 25 years. In addition to hosting CBC Radio One’s Cross Country Checkup, he was a longstanding correspondent for CBC-TV’s flagship news show, The National. His book Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities., provides practical advice for students and professional journalists trying to build meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities. His first book, The Shoe Boy, is a work of fiction that tells the story of a 17-year-old Anishanabe boy who was raised in the south joins a James Bay Cree family in a one-room hunting cabin.
Angela Misri is a Toronto journalist and novelist and an assistant professor of journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University. Angela worked at the CBC for 14 years before becoming the Digital Director for The Walrus. She writes about digital journalism, technology, politics and pop culture for many different media outlets, including the Globe and Mail, CBC, The Walrus, Global TV, and is the author of seven novels, including 2020’s The Detective and the Spy.